Covid PLow Day

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Achto 9,311

Achto 9,311

Or was it supposed to be covert?? Any way, Last weekend I had stopped by my brother Les's to plow his garden. When we were finished he jokingly said " If you guys want more land to plow, you could plow my 4 acre field ". I looked at him & said "Let me get in contact with my friends, I might be able to make that happen ". A few texts & phone calls later, I had a crew put together for today. The weather was great other than a very strong wind. With the rain that we had earlier in the week then a couple of dry days soil conditions were almost perfect, other than a few wet spots and some roots in the field.

The land was in a Set Aside program for 30yrs until last year when it was cleared and brought back to "farm-able" land. To prep the land last year trees, brush & what not were cleared. Stumps ground down and the land was run over with a disc. Then a crop of soy beans were planted. Saying that there was some residual remnants of its past 30 years may be putting it lightly.

So here we go... the first time that a plow has been dropped in this soil in over thirty years. This is me striking off the first furrow.

Some of the morning crew turning up the land.

Even though was out numbered, we were able to get the work done any way. A line up of the crew.

First, niece's husband Paul on his Cub Cadet 782D

My brother Tim on a Farmall Cub.

Jason on his Snapper 1855. This is one beast of a GT!

Joel on his newly set up Simplicity 2012.

A friend of Josh's that I have met a time or two. I feel really bad, for the life of me I can't remember his name. His ride is a CC 1872 "Super Cub"

Judge on a Cub Cadet 100

Caleb on Grizzly. @Coulter Caleb you must have been really putting the coals to Grizzly, looks like you have the front wheels coming off of the ground.

A plowing line and apparently the only time that I was able to catch Josh @PeacemakerJack on a tractor. Josh was busy helping his younger boys get some plowing done as well as helping others with their plow set ups and taking pictures. I'm hoping that he has some more cool pic's to add to this post.

It was a great day to be outside and to responsibly spend some time with friends & family.

Edited May 4 by Achto

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PeacemakerJack 8,120

PeacemakerJack 8,120

Boy...today was super fun! Thank you Dan @Achto for inviting me and my family out to turn some earth in the spring time. Surprisingly, this is the first time that I have ever plowed in the spring, my schedule or the weather has never allowed that to happen. I will do a write up in the plowing thread about plow setups and soil conditions but just let me say that overall we had a great time today. With all the “panic” surrounding us in the last several months it felt soooooo good to get out in God’s fresh air and enjoy the beautiful views and meet some new friends. Many thanks to Les and his wife for allowing us plow dogs to come over and invade his space for a few hours. Kelli and Claudia has other plans and so it was father/son time for PeacemakerJack! Before I get started let’s shout out to a few of our plow dog buddies... @WHX24

Dan said I could invite a few buddies and so I reached out to my friend Nathan, he goes by NateRo most of the time. I had picked up Super Cub a few years ago with a bad motor about the same time as NateRo’s box store JD croaked. He saw it and he was in love. I repowered it with a Kohler Command 23hp engine and he installed a Cat O setup on it late winter.

He has both tires loaded and just built the front “IH” weight set. The tractor did a good job and NateRo was ecstatic to attend his first plow day. He’s definitely an addict!

Next up is Zach:

he was very very upset that we couldn’t bring Blackbeard to plow but we just don’t have it quite setup yet. Needs AG’s, weights and some fine tuning and we can get him rolling.

However, I did get him on GhostRider for a few passes and he did a great job.

Is this kid cool or what?

I’m so thankful that he was entertained by hanging out with the guys and talking off their ears about tractors 😁

Then Jonathan:

We call him Judge. If you zoom in on his hat you will see that is says “the Judge”. He was given this nickname at birth and it stuck. Those of you that have followed my posts over the years have seen his Cub 100 many times. Often it is the “solo” Cub at Jim’s plow day. Some people would think it is mine but it is owned by Judge. However, this is his first plow day where he was old enough and capable enough to plow by himself. I walked with him on one lap explaining a few things and then pretty much left him to it. He was absolutely stoked to be able to turn soil by himself on his own tractor!

He spent some serious time on Grizzly! It is a full on Custom Cub 107. Updated with a custom hitch, fuel tank, Briggs twin with dual straight pipes (think: LOUD!!!!). We need to build a weight bracket for the front but other than that, we have it pretty dialed in and Caleb enjoys plowing on it. However, don’t be surprised if some day you see a gear drive on this one! The Hydro is fine but a gear slammer is where it is at for a true plow mule!

Joel: I really like this guy. I’ve had the privilege of talking with him multiple time over the last few years and I have always enjoyed his company. He is convinced that we (think: Jim @WHX24😁) own all the Wheel Horses around and so he got into Simplicity tractors. I have always like a little variety and so I find them fascinating. After plowing on some of our tractors last year, Joel said he needed to build his own plow tractor. Thanks to Dan, they built this machine. Joel was excited to show it to me and wanted me to make a round on it.

I was honored to get the opportunity to do that and very much enjoyed the little tractor. I suggested a fresh primary drive belt before his next plow day and we made a couple of adjustments to his plow on the fly to get it to track better and the heel of the landside to lay a little closer to the earth. He said he felt they were improvements and I’m glad I got to try the tractor out!

Jason: he’s another guy who has jumped into the plow dog role quickly and with veracity. His chosen brand is Massey and he has a nice collection.

I have to agree with Dan, this Snapper is a beast. Jason has it set up real well and it works amazing. He was trying to plow with a Brinly 12” that he brought along but could NOT get it to work good at all, it kept pushing the nose of his tractor into the plowed field. He found out later that the beam was bent and the suck point of the plow share was canted about 5-7 degrees to landside. That was forcing his tractor to point to the furrow side. He’ll get that straightened out and be in business.

Dan: I’ve taken many pics of Dan plowing over the last few years but I had to share this one. I like to capture unique angles when I can.

Dan’s Raider is one heck of a purpose built plow mule and turns earth with the best of them. I know you’ll find this hard to believe but Dan was actually plowing when I took this pic and no I didn’t get run over! 😂😂👏🏻

No...we didn’t have an over abundance of horses at this event but I’ll tell you one thing this “dark horse” will hold his own with the best of them. This is a plowing machine if I have ever used one. It has taken me a few years to get it to this point but I am almost there. It would be cool if this would end up being an annual event.

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Achto 9,311

Achto 9,311

I noticed that Snapper has OTR Lawn Trac R1 on the rear... I like mine more and more every time I play on my 520s

I'm not sure why Jason choose to go with those tires on his Snapper but I know he's not disappointed with them. Granted besides the my Dad's old IH Cub, Jason had the largest tractor there but I never saw him have an issue with traction. Jason is currently building a Massey Ferguson version of his 1855 Snapper and I'm pretty sure that he choose the same tires again.

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PeacemakerJack 8,120

PeacemakerJack 8,120

...OTR Lawn Trac R1 on the rear... I like mine more and more every time I play on my 520s.

Jeff, I think they are a great looking tire and seem to be very functional. I agree with Dan, Jason was not hurting for traction whatsoever. Thanks for the updates as you have used yours as well. Don’t forget to put a post on the plowing thread about them if you haven’t already. Tires are an important component of furrow plowing for sure👍🏻

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PeacemakerJack 8,120

PeacemakerJack 8,120

Didn’t do much videography at this plow day because I was helping a couple of boys get some plowing done but here is one of the videos that I took. Not my best work but it is fun to see Zach plowing with GhostRider. So far I am a fan of the electric lift, I am interested to see how long it will actually hold up...

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PeacemakerJack 8,120

PeacemakerJack 8,120

I’m embarrassed to admit this but we didn’t stay to the very end. We left about 4:30pm and there was about 5 passes left to close the dead furrow and probably twice that to finish the field to the road. Kevin would be disappointed in me but other responsibilities were calling. 🙄

Dan—did you guys wrap it up including headlands? I did speak with Jason while we were loading up and he said he enjoyed running the disc over the plowed field as much as plowing. That may be another option in the right situation if someone doesn’t have enough field for the number of guys plowing. After about half of it gets plowed, send some guys out with discs, diggers, and springtooths to break the big chunks down🤔

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Achto 9,311

Achto 9,311

We did finish plowing the whole field. Plus got it smoothed out with the spring tooth drag behind the 4 wheeler. I'm going to use my Cockshutt 30 to plant soy beans in it on Thursday after work. I'll try to get some pic's while I'm planting & add them on here.

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Achto 9,311

Achto 9,311

Last weekend was a time for a group of us to play with our garden tractors. Les was impressed that we were able to get it turned over with our little machines. He also said that the event has been quite a conversation topic in his neighbor hood.

Today I was able to get some seat time on my 1947 Cockshutt 30. My dad & I restored this Cockshutt about 20yrs ago. At one time Dad asked me if I could have one of the 16 antique farm tractors that he had, which one would I choose. Without hesitation, I said the Cockshutt 30. He said that some of the other ones were worth more. I agreed with him and said that I was sticking by my choice. Of the tractors that Dad & I restored together this tractor has always been my favorite.

With out further ado I'll share some pictures of Les & I planting soy beans today. First a pic of Les at the wheel while I was riding on the grain drill to make sure things were working properly.

A couple of pictures of me running the show.

I know that you guys like video's so here is a video that Les took while I was planting.

Not much left to do with this field now but sit back & wait for the beans to grow. Maybe I'll check back in on this post come harvest time.

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PeacemakerJack 8,120

PeacemakerJack 8,120

Great to see that old Cockshutt not only looking good, a capable winning puller, but also out in the field doing what it was originally built to do! Thanks for the great pics and video, looking forward to turning soil in that field again😎

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Achto 9,311

Achto 9,311

There is a pretty good chance that this will become an annual event. Les was very pleased with the results. Last year when he planted he had trouble with beans being left on top of the ground behind the drill. That was not an issue at all yesterday. When we plow may change year to year though. In fact we might be able to plow this field again this fall. Les is thinking about putting in winter wheat after the soy beans are harvested.